30-Minute Fried Rice

I recently got a full-time job. This means I come home at 5:15 and if my husband and I want some non-kid, sane time I have 45 minutes to get dinner on the table before we start our son’s bedtime routine.

This is not a lot of prep time, I’ve discovered. It takes all my strength to make something nutritious and non-mac & cheesy.

I am realizing that I need to strategize. I can’t expect to chop veggies, thaw chicken, marinate steak, or do all the other simple, yet time-consuming preparatory steps required to make tasty food.

Here’s the first of hopefully many recipes where you can come home from work, make the food, and then spend some quality time with your family, such as watching “Bob’s Burgers” (that’s what we are currently doing).

30-minute fried rice

Serves 4-6

To make delicious fried rice you really need to start with cold, cooked rice. That’s hard to do when you want to cook a meal in 30 minutes. But if you make the rice the night before while you’re binge-watching “The Voice,” and stick it in the fridge, you’re good to go the next day.

Ingredients:

2 cups uncooked rice, prepared and refrigerated overnight

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, removed from freezer the night before and placed in the fridge (I forgot to do this so we went without today)

vegetable oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups frozen vegetable medley (whatever medley you prefer)

4 tablespoons softened butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 an onion, diced

2 tablespoons chicken stock or water

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

3 green onions, chopped finely

3 tablespoons soy sauce

pepper to taste

Directions:

Slice the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Combine the butter and garlic in a bowl. Set aside. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Lightly coat the pan with vegetable oil.

Pour the eggs in the pan and let set for a minute before stirring vigorously. Set eggs aside. Wipe pan clean and add a little more oil. Toss in the chicken and sauté till cooked through. Set aside.

Add the chicken stock, veggies and onion to the pan. Sauté until veggies are cooked through. Add the sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of the garlic butter. Start crumbling the rice into the pan with your hands, about a cup at a time. Add a little more butter between handfuls. Add the green onions.

When butter and rice are incorporated in the pan, stir in the eggs and chicken. Add the soy sauce and cook until rice gets a little crispy if you like. Add pepper to taste.

Store the leftovers for lunch or cook up some ham or Spam and have breakfast fried rice.

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3 thoughts on “30-Minute Fried Rice”

Hubby and I have been trying to prepare things in advance. Pieces of meals that you can just thaw when you need them. (There are many things, including bread dough, muffins, pancakes, cookie dough, and egg concoctions that freeze fantastically.) This way- you should have little to no prep time.

This also assumes that you will do at least a little meal planning on the weekends, for the week ahead.

This recipe is reminiscent of years ago when The Galloping Gourmet offered this idea as a leftovers casserole….it can also be done with pasta and in total, with veggies,,low fat meats,,,presents a nutritious tasty and…quick…meal for a family…

Welcome to Alaska Knit Nat! I have always had a passion for making useful things, whether they are knit, crocheted, sewn or randomly glued and assembled. I started Alaska Knit Nat in 2010 as a means to keep track of all the stuff I make. I live in Anchorage, Alaska where the winters are long and cold. I’m not much of an outdoorsy person, so I enjoy passing the time cooking, creating and thrift store shopping.